emma watson

Emma Watson has been taking some time off from acting to focus on her work with HeForShe, an organization dedicated to gender equality. In this video she gets talked into beatboxing while Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of Broadway hits like Hamilton the musical, freestyles about (what else?) gender equality.

Emma Watson is on the cover of Porter this month, and she revealed an interesting new tidbit about her powerful 2014 feminism speech to the magazine. Apparently, prior to giving the now-famous speech, Watson was told to avoid mention of the word 'feminism' altogether:

I was encouraged not to use the word ‘feminism’ because people felt that it was alienating and separating and the whole idea of the speech was to include as many people as possible. But I thought long and hard and ultimately felt that it was just the right thing to do. If women are terrified to use the word, how on earth are men supposed to start using it?

If you missed Watson's speech, or just want to revisit her words, you can catch it in full below:

If you need another reminder that time's flat circle will eventually roll over and crush you, it might as well be in the form of Harry Potter news.

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the public's introduction to Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as the three precocious, magical children who found adventure, friendship and eventually love in the halls of Hogwarts.

Seriously, 15 years.

You probably have memories of this, don't you? Meaning you are even older than old.

ATTENTION ALL MUGGLES! Director Chris Columbus and producer David Heyman have discovered their Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger from the thousands of children who cast their names into the hat to play the roles. Young actor Daniel Radcliffe will be the film's Harry, with newcomers Rupert Grint and Emma Watson taking on the roles of Ron and Hermione, Harry's best friends at Hogwarts, in Warner Bros. Pictures' upcoming adaptation of the first in the best-selling series of Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling.

The hashtag #15yearsofDanEmmaRupert has sprung up around the anniversary with people sharing their memories and their appreciation for the wizarding trio.

By the by, this is what they look like now:

And you're probably older. Much older.

Sorry about the reminder that death is hurtling towards you at lightning speed.

It's been kind of a mixed bag for athletes making the difficult decision to come out as gay. It helps to have Hermione on your side.

Keegan Hirst recently broke many boundaries, coming out as Britain's first openly gay rugby player. For a macho guy in a macho sport with macho teammates and macho fans, it wasn't the easiest of decisions. He's received a lot of support for the decision, marking even more how much the world has grown in a short time.

And in a beautiful and classy move, Emma Watson congratulated Hirst in a series of tweets Aug. 18.

Courage is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation.

Emma You Are Next, A website purporting to leak private photos of Emma Watson has now been found out to be a coordinated hoax to get 4chan shut down. Yesterday internet sleuths discovered who was really behind the website so the countdown timer was pushed to today.

Emma Watson's first post-Hogwarts leading role comes in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which author Stephen Chbosky himself adapted for the big screen. The coming-of-age story, also starring Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller, is out September 14.